Food, Fitness, and Technology

I don’t really have a New Years Resolution this year, but eating less and being more efficient with the food I do buy is something I have been thinking about over the Christmas period.

Part of the reason for this was that I was lucky enough to get a copy of An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace for Christmas. It’s not a recipe book per se, it’s more a book to change the way you think abut food. I started reading it one afternoon, where like only some of the best fiction, I sat transfixed reading cover-to-cover until I was finished.

For the second year in a row I have made a beef pot roast for New Years Day Dinner. I like that it’s simple when realistically you are going to wake up late, and most likely a little bit worse for wear.

This morning when I eventually woke up, I went straight into making it.

I’m not exactly a skilled knitter, and I also don’t really have the patience to do long simple patterns – I need to feel like I am pushing myself. After looking at the notes on the project on Ravelry for Boot Candy Boot Toppers, this looked like the perfect pattern for me. It is quick to knit up, knitted in the round (new to me) and with cables.

At the end of December I wrote a post about how I had stopped cooking and baking during the stress of planning a wedding. How I had resolved to get myself back into it using a list of techniques and dishes I wanted to create by the end of 2012. Needless to say I can’t strike a single thing off of that list.

My first year as a married woman has not been spent as a domestic goddess, with apron on, baking delicious treats and warming homely dinners. While it is extremely unlikely I will ever be that woman, I can always hope (and pursue) more of a life/work balance for the next year.

However there was one thing that shines out above all others on the list, to bake, marzipan and ice a cake.

The weather in the UK and especially Edinburgh has been pretty terrible. Yesterday Matt and I popped out for lunch in the sunshine (with no rain forecast) by the time we were walking home it was torrential.

In my family we have running jokes about the moment you even think of having a barbecue the rain will come on, it’s similar to when the washing machine goes into its final spin cycle. No matter how blue the sky is, or how distant the clouds are, the weather will turn for the worse.

So I am responsible for the terrible weather in Edinburgh this summer. In June I bought a P-O-P-S-I-C-L-E mould.

I apologise.

Since then we have barely had a day of sunshine, and the temperature hasn’t raised above 16oC. I had imagined the summer spent with lots of great experiments with these icy treats. Could you get 5 of your 6 a day from a popsicle? Could you successfully recreate a G&T popsicle? Frozen champagne?

My best laid plans are not to be, however you can’t give up entirely, so I went ahead and made these cherry popsicles anyway.

Definitely worth the effort, even if the tips of my toes were turning blue in sandals as we ate them 🙂

The husband and I have been doing a fair amount of traveling recently Amsterdam, Dublin, London and most recently a week long holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes. While discovering a new city or relaxing on a beach somewhere ranks pretty highly on my favourite things to do, airport travel, funnily enough, does not.

However I have to grudgingly admit the airport food is getting a little bit better. Gone are the days when a flight from Glasgow meant the choice of Burger King or a slightly dried up sandwich. In Edinburgh I actually enjoy going to Eat before a flight, as they do light and tasty meals.

I have been wanting to recreate their Ham & Potato Summer Salad for a while, it’s pretty simple and it’s a salad that can be great for dinner not just lunch 🙂